The Global Nutrition Cluster warned on Monday that about 4.2 million children and pregnant or breastfeeding women in Sudan are projected to suffer acute malnutrition in 2026, as conflict persists and essential services deteriorate.
The UN-led group estimates roughly 8.4 million people will need nutritional support next year, including 5 million children under five and 3.4 million pregnant or breastfeeding women. Severe acute malnutrition among under-fives—affecting an estimated 824,000 children—poses the starkest risk to life without urgent intervention.
The Cluster is a coordination mechanism led by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to organize the response to food crises.
It added that among its recent surveys, 31 out of 61 reported a prevalence of global acute malnutrition at 15 percent or higher, exceeding the World Health Organization’s emergency threshold.
The global acute malnutrition is a measurement of the nutritional status of a population that is often used in protracted refugee situations.
The report said that the situation is expected to deteriorate further in 2026 due to the expanding conflict, declining food security, and damaged health and water services.
In 2026, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) plans to mobilize nearly 1 billion U.S. dollars to help 13.8 million people in Sudan, including 7.9 million children.
The agency warned that 3.4 million children face life-threatening diseases, as about 70 percent of health facilities in conflict-affected states remain nonfunctional.
On Jan. 15, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) cautioned that without immediate funding, its food stocks in Sudan will be depleted by the end of March, leaving millions without aid.
Sudan has been engulfed in a deadly conflict since April 15, 2023, when fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, leaving tens of thousands dead and millions displaced within the country and across its borders.
A late 2025 UN report confirmed famine in the cities of El Fasher in North Darfur and Kadugli in South Kordofan.
Sudan Conflict Spirals as Captured South Sudanese Fighters Signal Dangerous Regional Escalation
